William Gray: My Hurricane Inspiration

(Inside Science Currents) -- When I heard the news that hurricane forecasting pioneer William Gray had died on Saturday, I couldn’t help but remember how very important Dr. Gray was to my science writing career.

During my senior year of high school, my class was assigned to write a research term paper on a career that we were interested in pursuing. After careful thought, I chose meteorology. I loved science and had always been interested in how fast weather conditions can change. While investigating what exactly meteorologists do, I stumbled up an article that featured research by Gray about how dust from the sub-Saharan desert could spawn hurricanes half way around the globe – I was hooked! After more and more research, I ended up writing a paper titled “Breakthroughs in Hurricane Forecasting” showcasing all of the cool information that learned. I got an “A.”

A few months later, I declared my major as meteorology at Pennsylvania State University where I plunged head first into learning about satellite meteorology and working for Penn State’s campus weather service. Even though my interests broadened – I became fascinated with volcanoes too -- and I ended up changing my major to Geography, I never lost my fascination with hurricanes and severe weather.

After college, I became a science writer and was thrilled to learn that Gray would be attending an American Meteorological Society meeting that I was assigned to cover. I knew it would be a long shot but I took a chance that I would run into him and brought my term paper. I spotted him during a break in the sessions. I introduced myself and explained how I had written about his research in high school and it had inspired me to become a science writer. I asked for his autograph – like a science fangirl. He was gracious and kind and seemed to get a kick out of my enthusiasm. He encouraged me to keep learning and said that science writing was important in communicating science to the public. It was a brief encounter but such a thrill for me to talk personally with the man who inspired my career and a lifelong interest in hurricanes.

Dr. William Mason Gray died on April 16. This obituary from Colorado State University , where Gray was an emeritus professor of atmospheric science, offers more information about his life and research.